


There’s a System?—The There’s Cameras Everywhere Job

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 17:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6337927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hardison finally shows Eliot how his "system" works for keeping them safe from crazy CEOs in suits.  This fic starts at the The Top Hat Job, season two, continuing on through season four, somewhere in the middle.  Total change on what really happened right after the dialogue from the show at the beginning of the fic.  Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	There’s a System?—The There’s Cameras Everywhere Job

This fic starts at the The Top Hat Job, season two, continuing on through season four, somewhere in the middle. Total change on what really happened right after the dialogue at the beginning of the fic. Enjoy!

There’s a System?—The There’s Cameras Everywhere Job

“All the employee phones in this building are hooked up to the internal Wi-Fi. You remember the Trojan phone? It works both ways. See, I can use the server to access his phone. And once I'm in, I can see through his phone's camera.”

“You can do that?”

“Oh, you'd be surprised at what I can do. I can see through his phone’s camera.”

“You can see through his phone’s camera?” Eliot repeated what Hardison had just said. “That’s just creepy.”

“And necessary. I have the code, baby.”

Hardison really scared him sometimes. The man was the ultimate voyeur. He wondered how else the man had spied on his team with all these gadgets. Button cameras, bugs, hacking into feeds, what else could Hardison come up with?

Hardison sometimes let it slip about things they did without him. Eliot looked for tracers, but never found anything. He bought a burner phone to trick Hardison. He checked on his clothes every day to see if the man had placed any kind of tracking device or any kind of camera. He checked his car every single time before starting it (well, that was just because of his car being blown up once).

“You are spooked, man,” Hardison said one day when he noticed that Eliot was patting himself down.

“Just tell me how you do it?”

“I don’t do anything unless I want to do it. It’s all passive. I have traces on all your credit cards, your phones, any kind of electronics that are used. Hell, I can even tell you what you watched last night on your TV.”

Eliot frowned at him, clenching his fists to punch. “What else?”

“Your vehicles, the bar, just in case you know, some bad guy comes looking for us, Sophie’s apartment, Parker’s warehouse, your apartment, mine, even here. It’s all passive. It’s not like I look at the feeds. It’s just in case.”

“Yeah, just in case. That’s invasion of privacy, Hardison.”

“Listen, we play a dangerous game. One of these days someone is going to come gunning for us. Better to be prepared is my motto.”

Eliot sighed in resignation. Hardison was right. Better that just Hardison was watching their backs instead of the NSA or Interpol. Or one of many bad guys they had already put in jail. He was right; eventually one of these guys would come looking for them. Some people have long memories and even longer plans for revenge.

“Just the other day I installed this sweet camera in the back room of the bar. Just in case, you know, we have to review what one of our clients said. Nate just loves to take clients back there.”

“Yeah, I thought that Cora was going to throw us out that one time the client started shouting.”

Hardison smiled. “Clients be crazy. Of course, you’d be crazy too if someone just stole your life savings.”

“No, the other guy would be dead.”

Hardison frowned. “And this is why you work with us instead of the other way around, my man.”

For once, Eliot understood Hardison’s paranoia. They were all in danger. Most of the time they were careful, well, except when Nate was getting shot or Hardison was tangling himself up with Parker’s climbing equipment. Or the time that Sophie attempted to actually act during the con. That job almost died an early death. Or when Parker decided to bring cereal to a stake out.

“Let me see,” Eliot announced. “Show me everything.”

Hardison showed him how to access all the footage.

“Only one thing excluded though. I do not, under any circumstances, put cameras in anyone’s bedrooms.”

“What about Parker’s warehouse?”

“Pointed away from the bed. That’s just sick.”

Eliot breathed a sigh of relief. He did not want to explain to Hardison his many girlfriends.

“OK, say for example, we wanted to find Nate. Because out of all of us, he’s going to be the one who gets into the most trouble.”

The bane of Eliot’s existence was his boss, the mastermind. Nate’s schemes usually worked, it’s just he usually put himself in harm’s way too much. Sophie could talk her way out of trouble, Parker could run fast enough, Eliot could punch and Hardison could scream like a girl and draw a crowd. The man had balls. He would give him that.

“OK, so where is he right now? If I had to find him?”

“Oh, not too far away.”

Hardison pointed to a map on the screen in front of them.

“Oh cool. What’s that?” Parker announced from behind them.

Eliot had not heard her come in.

“Tracker on the car, on Nate.”

“He get himself in trouble again?” Parker asked.

Eliot shook his head in disbelief. Everyone on the team believed that Nate was a trouble magnet.

“No, Hardison was just testing the system.”

“There’s a system?” Parker wanted to know.

“I always have a system. How do you think I keep track of all this stuff? Osmosis?”

“Ozzy what?” Parker said as she tried to figure out what he said.

“Camera in the alley?” Eliot asked because he figured out pretty quick where Nate was parked.

“On the door into the back of the bar and one on the entrance to the alley. Deterrent when people park back there.”

Hardison managed to flip through all the cameras that were placed back there.

“Hey, why’s he just sitting there?” Parker asked. “And who’s in the car with him?   See, someone else is in there.”

“Let’s just find out,” Hardison told her as he zoomed in.

“Um, guys I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Eliot started, figuring out who it might be in the car.

“Oh, I have audio too,” Hardison said as he clicked another key.

“No, don’t,” Eliot shouted right after Hardison clicked.

The three of them could hear groaning and heavy breathing, followed what sounded like kissing.

“Shut it down,” Eliot yelled.

“I’m trying.”

“Nate, right there. Yes. Right there.”

“Hardison?”

“Just give me a minute.”

“Not sure there’s a minute left there, Sparky,” Parker giggled.

Hardison finally shut the audio feed off, but not before hearing Sophie shout Nate’s name.

“TMI,” Hardison managed to add. “Way too much. This is why I don’t have any feeds on bedrooms. This is why.”

Hardison shut it all down. The three of them looked at each other, then scattered. Eliot had a girl he needed to call.

 

“I’m too old for that to happen ever again,” Nate whispered to Sophie the next day. “I think I pulled a muscle.”

They sat next to each other at the table, waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive. All three made it into the room at the same time, but none of them would look them in the eye.

“OK, Hardison, run it.”

“Um, yeah, Lester Charles. He’s CEO of Charles Industries.”

Nate noticed Parker sitting up straight, looking anywhere but his way. She never did that. She was always slouched over the back of a chair or on the floor or sometimes even stood on her head.

Eliot kept rubbing his chin, then glancing his way when he thought Nate wasn’t looking. Then he’d pull his hair back like he was contemplating something.

Hardison stuttered when he’s keeping a secret. And he was stuttering through the whole info session.

“So, yeah, he’s been moving funds from one shell company to another, like, um.”

“What did he do, Hardison?” Sophie asked, compelling the hacker to answer her question.

“Hid some money far away where no one would find it.”

Nate frowned. Yeah, they all knew that.

“Hid it in his car, in an alley,” Parker added.

Both Hardison and Eliot quickly looked at the thief and shook their heads no.

“Parker, what are you talking about?” Sophie wanted to know.

“Nothing. Nothing at all. Go ahead, Hardison.”

She still wouldn’t look at Nate, but there was a smirk on her face. Since she was always a bit pale, Nate also noticed the fact that her face was bright pink.

“Parker, you wanna share with the class?”

Hardison pulled his hand over his neck in a slicing motion. Eliot clinched his mouth like he was trying to tell her to be quiet. Nate had to find out what the three of them were hiding.

Sophie picked up her tea cup, but it didn’t make it to her mouth. She swiveled her head his way, eyes going wide.

“Hardison, what did you do?” Nate asked, cluing in on what might have happened.

“I didn’t do nuthin’. You see, I am trying to keep y’all safe. It just goes to show you, everything I do, none of you appreciate. When one of you gets kidnapped by some punk ass CEO in a suit, I’m gonna know where to find you. Just you remember that.”

Nate put two and two together. “You have surveillance on the alley?”

“On the alley, the bar, everyone’s apartment, every single thing. I do not, under any circumstances, view the footage because I ain’t a voyeur. Except…”

“Except last night,” Nate finished off his sentence.

“That’s just weird, Hardison,” Sophie wanted him to know.

“Hey, I do not have anything on people’s bedrooms. After Chaos blew your place up, I had to take action.”

Nate knew the hacker was right. They had some very serious people out there that could do some serious harm.

“I was just showing Eliot how it all works. It’s just,” Hardison looked down at his shoes.

“And he turned on the audio,” Parker finished with a flourish.

The tea cup clanked down onto the coffee table before Sophie put her head in her hands.

“Who knew that Sophie was a screamer?” Parker added, totally not embarrassed as the rest of the team was.

Both Hardison and Eliot picked Parker up by her arms and led her away before Nate killed them all. Or at least yelled at them a lot. They left as quickly as they could. The con could wait.

“Well, now they know.”

Nate knew he’d have to tell the rest that he and Sophie were, well, together. He didn’t know of another word to use at the moment.

“That man is a danger,” Sophie said to Nate as she looked him in the eye.

“Who? Hardison?”

“He knows every step we make? Kind of creepy if you ask me.”

“And smart if you ask me. He’s right. We need to be more discreet.”

Sophie stood up suddenly, realizing something.

“The feed. In here? It’s just, we, dammit Hardison.”

“I have no idea how to operate this stuff.”

“Oh Nate, he’s going to have to go through footage to find it.”

“Or he’s already sold it to some porn site.”

“I wasn’t at my best. I’m sure he didn’t show my good side.”

Nate turned and looked at his grifter. Why was she thinking about her good side when it was possible that Hardison had seen all her sides?

“Oh come on, Nate. He would never do that. Besides, it’s not like we did anything, well, you know.”

They both looked at each other.

“We need to find Hardison. Now.”

 

 

 


End file.
